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Editor: A.Vlasenko Designers: A.Ptitzin, A.Marynsky, K.Kakovkin, M.Simakov

[blackgirlinrussia]

According to UN figures for 2012, Russia ranks seventh in terms of the asylum applications lodged with the European Union, right between Iran and Syria. In the first half of 2012, 8,251 applications for asylum were lodged by Russian citizens.

But according to figures provided by the European Commission, 77 percent of asylum applications originating with Russians in the third quarter of 2012 were rejected in EU countries.

According to Solopov, even if European detention centers for refugees – like the one in Rotterdam where Dolmatov hanged himself – are called “deportation centers,” and not prisons, they can be as psychologically harrowing as Russian jails.

Geert Ates of United for Intercultural Action, a Netherlandsbased network linking organizations that support migrant and refugee rights, told The Moscow News that 17,306 people have died since 1993 while trying to obtain asylum in Europe. These people died either while en route from their own countries or while awaiting a decision on their status as asylum seekers. Some 360 of the deaths were suicides. Of the 71 deaths on Dutch soil, for example, 30 were suicides.

United blamed border militarization, stricter asylum laws, and tightening immigration and detention policies for the deaths.

To leave or not to leave

Asylum seekers from Russia often travel to Ukraine and apply for refugee status with the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, which handles asylum cases in countries that don’t have their own refugee policy. The UNHCR evaluates applications and finds a “safe” third country that accepts the asylum seeker. Asylum seekers can also lodge an application once they’ve traveled abroad on their own, through the police or through refugee centers, depending on local policy. Once they have done that, asylum seekers stay at a refugee camp and face extensive questioning about once a week. The process takes about six months on average, but can last longer in some cases.

“It’s a complicated bureaucratic process. You have to tell them practically everything about yourself and your family,” Solopov said of his own experience obtaining asylum through the UNHCR, and of Dolmatov’s refugee camp, which he visited. “From the officials’ point of view, all refugees are the same. If someone thinks Russia is special, they’re wrong.”

[blackgirlinrussia]

Culture Ministry preparing 72-hour, visa-free travel law for tourists

Culture Ministry preparing 72-hour, visa-free travel law for tourists

08/10/201215:51